


Lava

by AutisticWriter



Series: Tumblr Prompt Fills [23]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Boredom, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Friendship, Games, Gen, One Shot, Silly, Team as Family, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 18:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11903421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: Sometimes you have to get inventive to avoid boredom.





	Lava

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this Tumblr prompt:
> 
> Imagine your found family playing “the floor is lava”. Who shouted “the floor is lava!” to start the game? Who jumped into a chair? The table? A cabinet or bookshelf? Who is scolding them all for ruining the furniture? Who was sitting down anyway and simply sat cross-legged to watch the fun? Who is loudly insisting that the dark tiles on the kitchen floor don’t count? Who jumped into somebody else to avoid the floor? Who ripped up the couch cushions and pillows and made a bridge? Who is scooting across the floor on a single cushion?

Boredom can be an issue for the Paladins, especially during the hours when they are just travelling through space and nothing is happening. And they don’t even have a television or internet access, so, to Hunk, there is a limit to the possible activities they can do. After all, there are only so many things he can bake with the weird ingredients with labels he can’t read in the kitchen, and he doesn’t consider training fun, so that doesn’t count at all. And at the end of the day, they are teenagers – and when have teenagers been known for having long attention spans?

Today is one of those days, and Hunk is seriously bored. He can’t be the only one, because the rest of the Paladins are sprawled around the lounge, doing nothing but sleeping or voicing their boredom. Even Shiro has fallen asleep, and Keith, who usually spends his time bickering with Lance or hiding in his bedroom, is having a half-hearted discussion with Pidge about something Lion-related.

Hunk yawns and stretches his arms above his head. “I’m bored.”

“We know,” Lance mutters. “You’ve said that like five times already.”

“Six,” Pidge says.

Lance sighs. “Whatever. But we know you’re bored, Hunk. We all are.”

“You know what I find boring?” Keith says without sitting up.

“What?” Lance says.

Keith’s lips twitch into a brief smile as he says, “Listening to you moaning about how bored you are.”

Lance shoots Keith a glare that makes Hunk want to laugh. So he does. And Lance glares at him instead.

“Why don’t we play a game?” Pidge says, rubbing her eyes.

“We’ve played all the games Coran gave us,” Lance says, and Hunk remembers that boring afternoon vividly. “And they’re all boring.”

“I don’t mean bored games. I mean… imaginary games.”

Keith scoffs. “Imaginary games? We’re not five year olds, Pidge.”

“Well, I’m not,” Lance mutters.

Keith clearly chooses to ignore Lance’s comment, and Hunk grins.

“Don’t knock imaginary games, Keith,” Hunk says. “They can be quite fun. Remember what we used to play back at the Garrison, Lance?”

Lance grins, obviously remembering what Hunk means. “You mean The Floor is Made of Lava?”

Hunk nods, grinning. “Yeah.”

“Yeah, that was pretty cool. Remember the time I knocked the cupboard over and we had to act fast before we got yelled at for knocking furniture over in the middle of the night.”

Hunk laughs. “Yeah… that was awesome.”

“Uh, I hate to stop you reminiscing, but what the heck are you talking about?” Keith says, frowning.

It suddenly occurs to Hunk that some people have never played The Floor is Made of Lava, and he wonders if they know what they’re missing.

“It’s a game me and Hunk used to play in our room at the Garrison,” Lance explains. “You pretend the floor’s made of lava and have to try and get around the room without touching the floor. It’s really fun.”

Pidge smiles fondly. “Yeah, I remember play that when I was a kid. At least until Mom yelled at us for treading all over the couch cushions.”

Keith looks very confused. “So you seriously want us to jump around the lounge pretending that the floor has turned into lava?”

Hunk nods. “Yep.”

Slowly, Keith smiles. “Why not? It’s better than being bored.”

\---

Shiro wakes to the sound of laughter and Lance yelling, “Shiro’s got his feet on the floor!”

He opens his eyes and immediately wonders what on Earth the others are doing. The couch cushions have all gone, and are now scattered all over the floor like stepping stones. Pidge is sat on the arm of the couch, swinging her legs and laughing hysterically at Hunk, who is wobbling precariously as he jumps from cushion to cushion. Lance is crouched on the sideboard, looking ready to jump. And Keith is stood on one of the couch cushions, his eyes wide as he studies the chaos around him. What are they all doing?

Just when he thinks things can’t get any weirder, Hunk loses his balance and falls to the floor. It probably doesn’t hurt, but Hunk starts screaming at the top of his voice, writhing around on the floor and holding his arms up in the air.

“Help!” he screams. “Help me, Pidge! The lava! Ahh! Help! Pidge!”

But Pidge just laughs and yells, “We’ve got a man down!”

“I’ll save him!” Lance shouts like he thinks he’s some kind of superhero, and he moves as though he’s about to jump right across the room—

Which is when Shiro stands up.

“Lance, don’t!” he snaps, not wanting to have to tell an alien civilisation that they can’t form Voltron and save them because the Blue Paladin has a broken leg. “What are you doing?”

Almost instantly, Hunk stops screaming and Lance crouches back down, looking disappointed.

“The floor is lava, Shiro,” Keith says in a faintly exasperated tone.

“What?” Shiro says.

“It’s a game. We’re imagining that the floor is lava and we can’t touch it. We were bored so Hunk and Lance suggested it.

“Right,” Shiro says, still not understanding but certain he wouldn’t understand even after an in-depth explanation.

“Do you want to join in?” Pidge asks.

Shiro shrugs. After all, he has been very bored recently. “What are the rules?”

“Don’t touch the floor,” she says, and she points at his feet.

Shiro stares at them all, and then jumps up onto the couch. Pidge grins at him, and Shiro smiles. “Hunk! Let me save you!”

And Shiro jumps across the floor and helps his young friend back onto a cushion and out of the ‘lava’.

\---

When Allura and Coran walk into the lounge, they find absolute mayhem. To Coran’s amusement and Allura’s displeasure (but only on the surface), the five Paladins of Voltron are screaming and climbing all over the furniture, shouting about lava and not touching the floor.

Coran glances at Allura, and he looks as confused as she feels. They watch Keith jump from one couch to the other, while Hunk shuffles across the room by slowly moving the cushion he is sat on.

Shiro is stood right against the wall, and he says something that sounds like, “These tiles don’t count!”

“Says who?” Lance says, right before Pidge jumps onto his back. The force overbalances him, and they both crash to the floor.

“Paladins!” Allura says in her most serious voice, and they all stop and shut up (except for Pidge, who can’t seem to stop giggling). “What are you doing?”

“It’s a game, Princess,” Shiro says, and he proceeds to explain the rules (not that there seem to be many) of the bizarre imaginary game the five of them are currently playing. For some reason, they are pretending that the floor is actually lava, and are doing the most ridiculous things to avoid touching it.

When he finishes, Allura and Coran are still confused.

“Do you have to ruin those cushions?” Coran asks, twisting the end of his moustache.

“Yes,” Lance says.

“It’s part of the game,” Hunk adds.

“And they’re not ruined, as such,” Pidge says, just about getting over her giggling fit. “Just… misshapen.”

“I see,” Coran says, and he starts to smile.

“And what exactly is the purpose of this game?” Allura asks.

“To stop us being bored,” Keith says. “I thought it was stupid at first, but it’s actually really fun.”

“We did tell you,” Lance says.

“Do you want to join in?” Hunk asks.

Allura looks at the Paladins, and then at Coran, and sighs. She smiles and rather than saying yes, she simply steps onto the nearest cushion. Coran grins and takes a running jump at the couch. And the Paladins start shouting again and everything descends back into chaos.

And that is how Princess Allura ends up playing The Floor is Made of Lava. And it might sound truly bizarre, but the game is actually a lot of fun. So fun, in fact, that they all vow to play it tomorrow too.


End file.
